BALTIMORE (MD)
WBAL-TV, NBC-11 [Baltimore MD]
September 4, 2024
By Tommie Clark
[Photo above: A SNAP news conference on Wednesday, September 4, 2024, outside the Maryland attorney general’s Baltimore office, including David Schappelle (speaking), and to his left, Teresa Lancaster, David Lorenz (SNAP’s Maryland Director), and Betsy Schindler.]
The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests‘ Maryland chapter wants to see results from the state attorney general’s investigation into two dioceses.
“The truth will come out, that is my goal. That is why we’re all here, is so that the truth can come out,” survivor David Schappelle said at a news conference Wednesday outside the attorney general’s Baltimore office.
Schappelle, who grew up in Gaithersburg in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., shared his experience as a victim of child sexual abuse at the hands of the Catholic Church.
“In the report on the Archdiocese of Baltimore, my abuser was called out in a footnote, and so it brought a weird sense of joy and delight to see his name in a report, so official,” Schappelle said.
In 2023, the Maryland Attorney General’s Office released its investigation into the Archdiocese of Baltimore, which led to the Child Victims Act eliminating the statute of limitations for filing lawsuits.
Schappelle is now urging the attorney general to complete the investigations into the Archdiocese of Washington and the Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware, which covers counties in Southern Maryland and along the Eastern Shore.
The Archdiocese of Washington is challenging the Child Victims Act. Next week, the Supreme Court of Maryland will determine whether the law is constitutional.
“The church, with one hand, says that they want to support us, and with the other hand, they want to take the law away, and they’re not just taking it from the Catholics, they’re taking it from other organizations,” survivor and lawyer Teresa Lancaster said.
Survivors said they must continue to hold the Catholic Church and its leaders accountable.
“When we finally get this report out, victims can finally release that burden of shame and guilt onto the place that it belongs, onto the predator, onto the people who protected that predator. That is the high-level Catholic Church,” SNAP Maryland Director David Lorenz said.
Jennifer Donelan, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Attorney General’s Office, sent a statement to 11 News, saying:
“We continue to receive information from survivors about allegations of child abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore – including information received after our office released the Report on Child Sexual Abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore in April 2023 – and we continue to investigate sexual abuse associated with the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and the Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware. We are reviewing all the information we receive about this matter and ask that survivors continue to report information through our hotline at report@oag.state.md.us and/or 410-576-6312.”
In regard to an update on its Chapter 11 process, the Archdiocese of Baltimore sent a statement to 11 News, saying:
“The archdiocese continues moving forward with the Chapter 11 process and working with the survivor committee and all parties involved toward the mutual goal of compensating victim-survivors. Presently, an agreed order directing mediation has been entered, mediators have been selected and the parties are advancing mediation efforts.”
The Archdiocese of Baltimore also shared the promise to protect and promote healing and reporting abuse, neglect and misconduct to the archdiocese resources.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington sent a statement to 11 News, saying:
“The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington has cooperated with the Maryland Office of the Attorney General’s investigation. In addition, the archdiocese remains fully committed to maintaining our robust safe environment program, which has been in place for decades, and our longstanding efforts to bring healing to survivors of sexual abuse within the church.”
tmclark@hearst.com
RECENT TIMELINE
Maryland Attorney General’s
Church Child Sex Abuse Investigation
In the 1990s, the Archdiocese of Baltimore received complaints of sexual abuse involving some of its priests dating back decades. According to the archdiocese, it established policies and an independent review board in 1993 and began reporting allegations of abuse as a result of guidance mandated by the Maryland Attorney General’s Office.
In 1994, the archdiocese removed Joseph Maskell from ministry amid credible allegations of child sexual abuse. Maskell’s name is seen nearly 200 times throughout a more than 450-page AG report that would be published in 2023. He was one of the primary subjects of the Netflix docuseries “The Keepers,” about a Baltimore Archbishop Seton Keough High School teacher found dead in 1970.
In 2002, the clergy sex abuse scandal exploded in Boston after it was revealed that dozens of
priests molested and raped children for decades while church supervisors covered it up and shuffled abusive priests from parish to parish, our sister station, WCVB, reported.
That same year, the Archdiocese of Baltimore apologized for abuse committed by ministers of the church and voluntarily published a detailed list naming credibly accused clergy. In the years that followed, the archdiocese reports it implemented mandatory screening and training policies for employees and volunteers, began offering mediated financial settlements to victim-survivors and required annual child protection refresher training for all employees/clergy.
In 2018, a sweeping Pennsylvania grand jury report accused senior church officials of systematically covering up complaints involving more than 1,000 children who were molested by roughly 300 Roman Catholic priests since the 1940s.
More victims in Baltimore came forward thereafter, and the Maryland Attorney General’s Office opened an investigation that ultimately revealed decades of child sexual abuse and leadership’s efforts to cover it up.
This a brief timeline of the events that followed.
June 1, 2017
The Netflix documentary series “The Keepers” reveals a long-standing and baffling cold case, focusing on a Baltimore County police investigation into the disappearance and killing of Sister Cathy Cesnik. – Story
June 2, 2017
“The Keepers” focuses on a killing and years of molestation at a Baltimore high school, and it has helped to bring more victims to light. – Story
June 6, 2017
The story of young women who say they were abused at Archbishop Keough High School in the late 1960s through the early 1970s is highlighted in “The Keepers.” – Watch: Victim speaks out to 11 News
Aug. 16, 2018
Baltimore sexual abuse victims hope release of grand jury report in Pennsylvania will lead to action in Maryland. – Story
Sept. 25, 2018
Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh launches a review of sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. – Story
Nov. 9, 2018
11 News I-Team Exclusive: Baltimore Archbishop William Lori addresses church sex abuse scandal: “We have to be held to the same high standard we hold our priests and lay employees and volunteers to. We should have the same standards and the same consequence.” – Watch
April 24, 2019
The archdiocese adds 23 names of deceased priests and brothers previously and credibly accused of child sexual abuse to its online list. – Story
June 12, 2019
Following the Archdiocese of Baltimore enacting a third-party reporting practice in January 2019 — the first diocese in the nation to do so — the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops met in Harbor East and authorized a national anonymous third-party system for confidential reporting of abuse allegations. The bishops approved a self-imposed deadline for implementation of May 31, 2020, and Baltimore fully adopted the national version in 2020. – Story
“A reporting system that goes to two lay members of our review board, two judges and to law enforcement, and what we see now is these sorts of things, God willing, on a national level,” Lori said.
Victim-survivors said the hope the reporting system will lead to change. – Story
Nov. 17, 2022
Frosh files a motion to release his office’s investigative report of child sexual abuse in the archdiocese. – Story
Nov. 18, 2022
Court issues ruling, redacted report can be released after redacted copy is prepared. – Story
Feb. 24, 2023
Victim-survivors call on the report to be released and the investigation expanded. – Story
March 15, 2023
Court receives redacted report for review. – Story
April 4, 2023
Judge authorizes report’s release. – Story
April 5, 2023
Attorney General Anthony Brown’s office releases the report, revealing decades of child sexual abuse and the archdiocese leadership’s efforts to cover it up. The report lists 156 current or former Catholic clergy, seminarians,
deacons, teachers at Catholic schools, others as having abused hundreds of children.
– Read the Report | Victims | List of Abusers | Exclusive: Lori responds | Signs to watch for
The same day of the report’s release, the Maryland House bill that would eliminate the statute of limitations on child sex abuse cases, the Child Victims Act of 2023, was approved and sent to the governor. – Previous report on the bill
April 14, 2023
A reignited controversy over revealing names brews over the attorney general’s report. The archdiocese posts a new FAQ page on its website about the attorney general’s report. The Attorney General’s Office releases a series of statements, saying most of what the archdiocese said is untrue, misleading and unfair to survivors. – Story
May 9, 2023
Attorneys Ben Crump and Adam Slater put the archdiocese on notice for lawsuits months before a new state law eliminates the statute of limitations for sexual abuse lawsuits. – Story
June 30, 2023
The archdiocese’s list of priests and brothers accused of child sexual abuse, which has different criteria than that used in the attorney general’s report, grows by 39 names. – Story
Aug. 22, 2023
A Baltimore court rules that more redacted names can be revealed from the attorney general’s report. The AG said the names of 10 alleged abusers and five ranking archdiocese officials were redacted. As a result of the court’s order, all but three of those individuals will now have their names revealed in the report. – Story
Sept. 26, 2023
Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown releases a revised interim report on child sexual abuse in the archdiocese. The new report removed some of the redactions that the court had ordered in the report’s initial release in April. By order of the Baltimore City Circuit Court, some of the information remains redacted while certain individuals named in the report appeal a decision to disclose their identities. – Story
Sept. 29, 2023
The Archdiocese of Baltimore files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it faces a potential for child sexual abuse lawsuits. This comes days before a new Maryland law took effect that eliminates the statute of limitations for victims of sexual abuse to file lawsuits and raises a
cap on noneconomic damages to $1.5 million per incident. – Story
11 News Exclusive: “We realized if we tried to litigate (the lawsuits) individually, that we would very quickly run out of resources. The first few would be compensated, but no one else would be compensated,” Lori said.
Eric Steiner, a bankruptcy attorney who is not involved in the proceedings, explains to the 11 News I-Team that filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, in this case, is likely a strategic move by church officials.
“It is often used when the liabilities outweigh the assets, which seems to be the case,” Steiner said. “So, it can be an efficient way to resolve claims, and obviously, the archdiocese is going to want to pay as little as possible versus the creditors that want more. So, really, the court’s job is to balance the interests of both sides.”
Oct. 3, 2023
The Archdiocese of Baltimore appears in federal bankruptcy court and was granted a full 30 days for the church to add up its assets. The judge also agreed to seal the names of the more than 600 victim-survivors who are expected to file civil lawsuits, as well as the 197 names of archdiocesan employees. – Story
May 22, 2024
The Archdiocese of Baltimore released its final realignment plan to close and/or merge dozens of parishes across the city and immediate suburbs. – Story